Abstract: Neither direct broadcasts nor recordings of live performances are the same as live performances, because the technology involved renders the medium non-transparent even if acoustic verisimilitude is achieved in the transmission. Studio performances display different strengths and weaknesses from sound-alike live performances, and the two should be assessed and appreciated differently. The ubiquity of recordings has many desirable features, but the medium decontextualises and abstracts the music it purveys, thereby alienating the music from the context of its creation and the performance.

Keywords: decontextualise, live, medium, non-transparent, performance, recording, studio,